Montpellier
We had a very early start. Too early for my liking! I walked to the fountain at 6.30 am still feeling half asleep to meet Grace and Liz at 6.40. Grace was late as usual so I was slightly panicking that we’d miss the train. Grace’s watch is late and my watch is early we’re always blaming each other for having the wrong time. It’s only since being here and around Grace and liz’s calm attitude to every thing that I’ve realised that I’m actually a bit neurotic and worry about small things. Big things I’m still quite laid back about, which doesn’t really make sense. So we carted our over packed to the brim bags up the hill towards the station, where Hannah would be waiting for us. Hannah, Liz and I decided to bring our guitars with us. The laundrettes on tour! Since playing the guitar in the laundrette, we discovered that one of the photos I took looks like a video shoot so ‘laundrettes’ seemed like a suitable name. So far we only really have one song under the belt! Wagon wheel!
Right enough rambling. Our train to Paris was 7.10. Thankfully we didn’t miss. We all sat there falling asleep to our ipods for two hours until we arrived in Paris. We bought a carnet and jumped on the metro to on other metro stop to get the train that would take 4 hours to our destination: Montpellier. So after a pretty non eventful journey we tried to find Laura, who had said she’d meet us at the station. While waiting for her to arrive where she said she’d come and find us, we had an American and Irish teaching assistances ask us what we were near and where we’d recommend seeing in Montpellier. We explained that we had no idea but our friend who lives hear would be along any minute. Laura arrived looking summery as ever. It was quite a warm day but as usual all the French were dressed up as though it was the middle of winter, scarves, coats the whole nine yards. That’s one thing English in us that will never change. When there’s sun, you take advantage of it and strip off! We sun cream of course. Laura helped our new friends out with directions and we were on our way.
The walk to Laura’s seemed like forever! Most probably because we were carting guitars, the same bags we had taken to Rouen to last us 3 months and almost as many clothes.
We dropped our bags off at Laura’s house and were assigned our beds. I slept in Laura’s gigantic bed with her, which I’m sure she regretted when the next day she told me I was almost on top of her in the middle of the night. Sorry Laura! Hannah, Grace and Liz were in the living room on the sofas which were actually more like beds. So we unpacked a little and then decided to take advantage of the glorious sun! This day was mostly spent in café’s we went grocery shopping to. It was really nice to live like tourists. It’s funny we all didn’t mind standing out as English at all but in Rouen we want to seem French or at least fit in a bit.
Right so Grace and Liz in the hopes of losing weight and de-toxing decided to live on a diet of grapes and rice for a week. The rules were quite strange so because they allowed them selves any drinks so for instance we’d be in a café giving hot chocolate and Grace would put the chocolate on the side into her drink and be like ‘I’m not breaking the rules!’ They also allowed themselves soya source on the rice. They did brilliantly though and didn’t break it once even when feeling weak and tired.
Laura, Hannah and I went all out in the supermarket but were still healthy. Strangely enough if split the bill we only ended up spending a little more than them. I guess juices and rice are expensive.
Laura had arranged for us to go over to a gathering of an assistant teacher friend of hers. This was very enjoyable if not a little surreal. I kept saying I didn’t know what country I was in. All of a sudden there were English, Scottish, Australians, Americans, New Zealanders, in the room. Other than visitors, the only English people I’ve spoke to for 9 weeks has been Grace, Liz and Hannah. After asking lots of questions about being a teaching assistant, talking to the Amercan’s about America and being at summer camp, explaining our degree and what we were doing here, we all went out to an Australian bar/club.
Wednesday
We’d looked at the weather fore cast before coming and according to the weather man this was to be the hottest day of the week so….we decided to go to the beach! Laura’s friend from Nottingham is doing teaching assistant year in Lisle and she came to see Laura and Montpellier and brought 7 friends with her. The night before we’d arranged to meet at 10 Oclock the next day and cycle to the beach. We all rented bikes for a bargain price of 2 euros and Laura lead the way to beach. We began cycling along the tracks of tram line, which seemed like a good idea until a tram was heading at us from both directions and in a panic, Grace got her bike caught in the tracks! It took 1 hour and ½ in total to get there. While it seemed warm on the way there as we were exercising so the wind didn’t bother us, when we actually go there and were lying on the beach, we were freezing! At first Grace and Laura’s friend Lauren were hopeful and had their bikinis on but soon our jumpers and scarves weren’t enough to protect us from the cold so we decided to go in the one of the cafes’ near by for some hot chocolate but…they didn’t have any left! So I had tea. Soon after this we all climbed back on to our bikes and prepared our selves for the long journey home. It was actually sunny again! It was just really cold as we were by the sea. We arrived home at about 6, quickly had showers and then Hannah, Laura and I went out to meet Lauren and her friends at a fondu restaurant. Grace and Liz couldn’t come because the chances of there being grapes and rice there were quite slim and it would be too much torture watching us eat yummy cheese. Speaking of which I was set the challenge of giving us cheese for a week as I’m so addicted it. When there was mention of going to a fondu restaurant, I decided to take on the challenge next week when away from temptation.
The restaurant was great! A pot of hot cheese, brad to dip in it, Potato to dip in it: heaven! Also the wine was given to us in baby’s bottles, which was cool but strange! It affected us bizarrely quickly. In the deal was also an aperitif and ice cream for dessert. It was 17 euros and worth cent. We went on to a pub after this. I was feeling full all night!
Thursay
Rain rain go way! We didn’t leave the house. It did not stop raining. We watched sex and the city and random things on U tube. Laura has the internet at the house which is a bit novelty!
Friday
The weather was still pretty miserable but we wanted to get out the house. So we went shopping. We also did some more sitting in cafes acting French. We rented a film that evening called Paris je t’aime. It had 18 different stories put together, each with a different director. Tres bien
Saturday
Today was to be the only other day with ok weather so originally we watched to cycle to the beach again. When stepping outside, towels in hand the weather was not so promising. We decided to rent bikes anyway and rode to the river for a picnic. Grace stripped off into her bikini again and we got ‘Crazy girls!’ looks from passers by. That evening we watched another French film. This one was about Erasmus students in Barcelona. The English character didn’t not come across so well or represent us well as she cheated on her boyfriend and had a rude and offensive, drunk for a brother. It was a good film though.
Sunday
I thought it was about time we had some culture so persuaded everyone to go to the art gallery in the museum. Most of the paintings were from the 16th century. I did quite a lot of analysing and deconstructing which sentences like there’s a skull in this painting, I think the artist is hinting at death. Stating the obvious just a little. I enjoyed the exhibition and did get a lot out of it.
Monday
Last day. Laura was the perfect hostess all week, I forgot to say. Always cooking us lovely meals and the best scrambled eggs I’ve ever had in my life! We were going to rent bikes again but decided against it as we were all pretty tired. Instead we had a picnic on some grass about 5 minutes from the river. Liz and I brought our guitars. We were all a large area of grass but some reason these 3 little children decided to play ball right next to us. After a while we realised it was being they wanted attention. First of all they asked us to take a photo, then they wanted to play our guitars to which Laura quickly said no and then they ran over to they’re bikes brought out a guitar and the oldest girl who was about 11, decided to show us up and started playing guitar a lot better than us. It began to feel like a competition. At this point they were so close they were almost on top of us. They were dropping English singer names left right and centre. They were quite sweet actually if not a little annoying. Near by there was what looked like man and his girl friend? He was juggling away trying to wow the crowd but our little fans were having none of it had their eyes fixed on us!
That evening we went out to a Japanese restaurant with Laura’s friend Christine, an American exchange student. It was lovely. Grace and Liz had finished their diet too so they could finally eat!
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Monday, 14 April 2008
30 March onwards
Yeah I’ve got bit behind on my blog as I’ve been busy and then forget things. Here’s what I wrote last week. Sorry mum I haven’t written properly about your time here yet but it was lovely having you and dad come and visit and you know my friends adored your dancing! Just to jump ahead abit, yeas for the past week I’ve been on holiday from art school and tomorrow Monpellia! I’ll write soon properly.
Sunday
Well I didn’t do much. I went for a walk along the riverside and contemplated going up the big hill but changed my mind when I got there.
Monday painting painting painting! Grace had told me the clocks were going had gone forward the day before and told me to tell the others but I forgot and subsequently when I told Liz and Hannah the next day, they felt like they’d lost an hour of their life. Liz thought she was turning up early to paint and she wasn’t. It’s all my fault! For no reason in particular we all decided to go to the supermarket and buy red wine, grapes, bread, and 4 differernt types of cheeses. This is the life. Feeling very French, we went back to Graces to begin our session of endless amounts eating and afternoon drinking. We watched the film ‘the wedding crashers’.
We left at around 7.30 feeling a little tipsy and surprised at how light it was outside. I have a sneaking suspicion it’s because the clocks went forward… Later on that evening we decided to go to O’kalloghans just because it was so light out still, it didn’t feel right staying in. We didn’t drink though. I ordered a coke but they’d run out!!!!! So I had an Orangina. There was a singer in there playing typical bar songs, like Amy Winehouse, Oasis and such like. It was really funny because he was sitting at the bar, facing the bar so we didn’t see his face all night. I guess he had stage fright. There was only about 10 people in the bar anyway so we felt a bit rude leaving when we did. We were tired a feeling the effects of stuffing our faces with wine and cheese though.
I went in to the art school pretty early and finished my painting…I think. I might go back to it. I got a call from Grace asking if I want to go out to café Cheri so I packed up and went to meet her. I got the usual- hot chocolate. After an hour or so in there I was feeling pretty stuffy so I decided to go for a little walk which ended up being a 2 hour walk. I decided to cross the bridge! Crossing the bridge seems like coming to the edge of the world or something. My side of the bridge is like this protected little world, like in the trueman show. I’d been across a few times before, once for the punk concert and once for the comedy show at the Scottish pub but I’d never been in the day and I’d never been alone! It turns out there’s loads more shops over there, a market and another cathedral. After all that walking I was exhausted so I stopped off at Hannah’s on the way back and borrowed a film.
Tuesday
Liz and I painted in the studio. Not too sure what Hannah and Grace were up to. We were supposed to meet Patricia at around 5-6 to go to an exhibition where students from beaux art were collaborating with another art school. Patricia didn’t turn up until about 6.30 to pick us up. So while we were waiting outside, Grace went into a little shop to guy a card and made the mistake of saying ‘saluuuuut!’ to the old woman behind the counter who quickly corrected her rude French by replying ‘Bonjour mademoiselle…’. She’s just too friendly! The other day we were in virgin and she said ‘tu’ instead of ‘vous’ to the man behind the counter. He kept looking at us strangely as if we’d just come on to him or something and then he said ‘you know….you only say ‘tu’ to close friends and family? Whoops! She’ll remember one day….
The exhibition was pretty cramp. The first thing we saw when we walked in was performance art where a woman originally dressed in white, was stood on a table and people were encouraged to through paint on her while she recited some French I didn’t understand. I’m not sure the reason behind this. We walked on and there was an installation of a 1940’s room. We think the theme was disturbance as the phone was left of the hook and the person who ‘lived’ there seemed to be in the middle of a cross word. Other things in the exhibition included a few paintings, a video montage of films clips placed on a loop to change the meaning.
We’d driven outside of Rouen to get to this exhibition and it was right next to Patricia’s
parents house so she decided to go in while we were at the exhibition. She said she’d drive us home or if we found someone to get a lift off, to go on without her. The truth of the matter was we were ready to go home after about half an hour and didn’t really want to go up to someone and say bonsoir avez vous un voiture? Hint hint not so subtly. So, we decided to walk. We new the vague direction and we just thought we’d follow directions. It would have been a 1 hour walk maybe but we only got half way when we noticed a car beeping and eventually stopping. It was Patricia. She said she’d been asking everyone at the exhibition where we were and was so shocked to see that we’d walked. Everyone here’s lazy and drives everywhere even if it’s a 5 minute walk. Anyway we jumped in the car and wre greatful of thr lift as it had started to rain.
We met up with Quintin aka Mika, well we’ve changed his name to Mika and Charlie again. They brought a friend called … and we all went to the opening night of a new bar. The bar was really unusual looking with purple stripes on the walls and mirror circular tables. The drinks were pretty expensive, for France so we moved on quite soon. Because we went to the bar before dinner and I hadn’t really eaten any lunch, I felt a bit drunk on my 1 glass of wine. I more than made up for my lack of eating at this restaurant. We went to a Fondu restaurant but the vegetarian option of fondu had cider in it and if I have one drop of cider I’m sick for a week. Instead I had this cheese potato bake thing in a casserole dish which looked like a meal for three. As if this wasn’t enough, they gave me a side salad too. I was full. After stuffing ourselves to the max, we all jumped in Mika’s car and he drove us too Grace’s house to play some music. Mika brought his electric guitar again and also his Ukulele which I had a go on. So much fun!
Wednesday
Went into the studio for another day of painting.
Thursday
For some reason I got it into my head that my parents were arriving today. It might be because Hannahs parents were arriving, I’m not sure but anyway I turned up at the station to pick them up and they were no where to be seen. I just happened to run out of credit on my engish phone just as I needed it too! It always seems to be the way! So about an hour later I realised I’d got the wrong day and they were coming the next day…. Whoops! Well done Mary…
So I kind of wasted the whole afternoon hanging around, getting credit on the net. It was a gorgeous day so I walked to Liz’s had some tea, played guitar and headed back into town to meet everyone. That evening we went out for a meal with Mika, Christophe, Charlie, and two new people called Laura and Timothe. We went to a delicious pizza place with typically French pizza toppings like camembert and emmental. I can’t keep living like this! It’s too expensive! Mika says he goes out for meals about 3 nights a week. I suppose their tuition fee here is only 400 euro so they can afford it.
Frdiay
Right second time lucky! I turned up at the station at 2 o clock and there my parents were, the day they said they would be. I went over and hugged them and escorted them out the station towards my house. We were heading up Grace’s road to get to my apartment, when we ran into Hannah, her mum and sister. We stopped for a little chat, carried on walking until who should pop her head out the window, Grace! She shouted down to us for a few minutes then we said we’d see her soon and walked on. A few minutes later we were finally in my lovely apartment. My parents seemed impressed. They hadn’t eaten all day so I gave them some French bread, cheeses, grapes and red wine, which my mum managed to spill all over Celils yellow through. Like mother like daughter.
About an hour later I decided to take them into the art school as this would be the last day they could see it because of the holidays coming up. On the way just as we were passing the fountain we ran into Liz. 3 in one day! She was waiting to meet Grace and they were going to see a French band with love called BB Brune at Mika’s university ball. I only know one song which feature the only words ‘dis moi!’. We arrived at the art school where I showed them my space and such like and then we went for a drink at a local café. We stopped off at the supermarket to pick up some food and wine and returned home to get changed. My dad thought it was stuffy and suggested I opened the window so I did so and a few minutes later my mum fluffed down on the day where the open window was. The next thing we knew she was gasping in excruciating pain and blood was poring from her head! My dad was shouting get some tissue he said later that his heart was beating so fast. Thank god her head stopped bleeding pretty soon and it wasn’t fatal! Mum always hurts herself on holiday whether it’s a jelly fish sting or a twisted ankle, there’s always drama.
When we’d run into Hannah and family earlier we’d arranged to out for meal with them. We met at the church near the art school and I decided to take them to the same restaurant we’d gone to a few nights before.
Had a brilliant night out in a pub called saxo. Live music and everyone got up and started dancing. My parents leading the way!
Yeah I’ve got bit behind on my blog as I’ve been busy and then forget things. Here’s what I wrote last week. Sorry mum I haven’t written properly about your time here yet but it was lovely having you and dad come and visit and you know my friends adored your dancing! Just to jump ahead abit, yeas for the past week I’ve been on holiday from art school and tomorrow Monpellia! I’ll write soon properly.
Sunday
Well I didn’t do much. I went for a walk along the riverside and contemplated going up the big hill but changed my mind when I got there.
Monday painting painting painting! Grace had told me the clocks were going had gone forward the day before and told me to tell the others but I forgot and subsequently when I told Liz and Hannah the next day, they felt like they’d lost an hour of their life. Liz thought she was turning up early to paint and she wasn’t. It’s all my fault! For no reason in particular we all decided to go to the supermarket and buy red wine, grapes, bread, and 4 differernt types of cheeses. This is the life. Feeling very French, we went back to Graces to begin our session of endless amounts eating and afternoon drinking. We watched the film ‘the wedding crashers’.
We left at around 7.30 feeling a little tipsy and surprised at how light it was outside. I have a sneaking suspicion it’s because the clocks went forward… Later on that evening we decided to go to O’kalloghans just because it was so light out still, it didn’t feel right staying in. We didn’t drink though. I ordered a coke but they’d run out!!!!! So I had an Orangina. There was a singer in there playing typical bar songs, like Amy Winehouse, Oasis and such like. It was really funny because he was sitting at the bar, facing the bar so we didn’t see his face all night. I guess he had stage fright. There was only about 10 people in the bar anyway so we felt a bit rude leaving when we did. We were tired a feeling the effects of stuffing our faces with wine and cheese though.
I went in to the art school pretty early and finished my painting…I think. I might go back to it. I got a call from Grace asking if I want to go out to café Cheri so I packed up and went to meet her. I got the usual- hot chocolate. After an hour or so in there I was feeling pretty stuffy so I decided to go for a little walk which ended up being a 2 hour walk. I decided to cross the bridge! Crossing the bridge seems like coming to the edge of the world or something. My side of the bridge is like this protected little world, like in the trueman show. I’d been across a few times before, once for the punk concert and once for the comedy show at the Scottish pub but I’d never been in the day and I’d never been alone! It turns out there’s loads more shops over there, a market and another cathedral. After all that walking I was exhausted so I stopped off at Hannah’s on the way back and borrowed a film.
Tuesday
Liz and I painted in the studio. Not too sure what Hannah and Grace were up to. We were supposed to meet Patricia at around 5-6 to go to an exhibition where students from beaux art were collaborating with another art school. Patricia didn’t turn up until about 6.30 to pick us up. So while we were waiting outside, Grace went into a little shop to guy a card and made the mistake of saying ‘saluuuuut!’ to the old woman behind the counter who quickly corrected her rude French by replying ‘Bonjour mademoiselle…’. She’s just too friendly! The other day we were in virgin and she said ‘tu’ instead of ‘vous’ to the man behind the counter. He kept looking at us strangely as if we’d just come on to him or something and then he said ‘you know….you only say ‘tu’ to close friends and family? Whoops! She’ll remember one day….
The exhibition was pretty cramp. The first thing we saw when we walked in was performance art where a woman originally dressed in white, was stood on a table and people were encouraged to through paint on her while she recited some French I didn’t understand. I’m not sure the reason behind this. We walked on and there was an installation of a 1940’s room. We think the theme was disturbance as the phone was left of the hook and the person who ‘lived’ there seemed to be in the middle of a cross word. Other things in the exhibition included a few paintings, a video montage of films clips placed on a loop to change the meaning.
We’d driven outside of Rouen to get to this exhibition and it was right next to Patricia’s
parents house so she decided to go in while we were at the exhibition. She said she’d drive us home or if we found someone to get a lift off, to go on without her. The truth of the matter was we were ready to go home after about half an hour and didn’t really want to go up to someone and say bonsoir avez vous un voiture? Hint hint not so subtly. So, we decided to walk. We new the vague direction and we just thought we’d follow directions. It would have been a 1 hour walk maybe but we only got half way when we noticed a car beeping and eventually stopping. It was Patricia. She said she’d been asking everyone at the exhibition where we were and was so shocked to see that we’d walked. Everyone here’s lazy and drives everywhere even if it’s a 5 minute walk. Anyway we jumped in the car and wre greatful of thr lift as it had started to rain.
We met up with Quintin aka Mika, well we’ve changed his name to Mika and Charlie again. They brought a friend called … and we all went to the opening night of a new bar. The bar was really unusual looking with purple stripes on the walls and mirror circular tables. The drinks were pretty expensive, for France so we moved on quite soon. Because we went to the bar before dinner and I hadn’t really eaten any lunch, I felt a bit drunk on my 1 glass of wine. I more than made up for my lack of eating at this restaurant. We went to a Fondu restaurant but the vegetarian option of fondu had cider in it and if I have one drop of cider I’m sick for a week. Instead I had this cheese potato bake thing in a casserole dish which looked like a meal for three. As if this wasn’t enough, they gave me a side salad too. I was full. After stuffing ourselves to the max, we all jumped in Mika’s car and he drove us too Grace’s house to play some music. Mika brought his electric guitar again and also his Ukulele which I had a go on. So much fun!
Wednesday
Went into the studio for another day of painting.
Thursday
For some reason I got it into my head that my parents were arriving today. It might be because Hannahs parents were arriving, I’m not sure but anyway I turned up at the station to pick them up and they were no where to be seen. I just happened to run out of credit on my engish phone just as I needed it too! It always seems to be the way! So about an hour later I realised I’d got the wrong day and they were coming the next day…. Whoops! Well done Mary…
So I kind of wasted the whole afternoon hanging around, getting credit on the net. It was a gorgeous day so I walked to Liz’s had some tea, played guitar and headed back into town to meet everyone. That evening we went out for a meal with Mika, Christophe, Charlie, and two new people called Laura and Timothe. We went to a delicious pizza place with typically French pizza toppings like camembert and emmental. I can’t keep living like this! It’s too expensive! Mika says he goes out for meals about 3 nights a week. I suppose their tuition fee here is only 400 euro so they can afford it.
Frdiay
Right second time lucky! I turned up at the station at 2 o clock and there my parents were, the day they said they would be. I went over and hugged them and escorted them out the station towards my house. We were heading up Grace’s road to get to my apartment, when we ran into Hannah, her mum and sister. We stopped for a little chat, carried on walking until who should pop her head out the window, Grace! She shouted down to us for a few minutes then we said we’d see her soon and walked on. A few minutes later we were finally in my lovely apartment. My parents seemed impressed. They hadn’t eaten all day so I gave them some French bread, cheeses, grapes and red wine, which my mum managed to spill all over Celils yellow through. Like mother like daughter.
About an hour later I decided to take them into the art school as this would be the last day they could see it because of the holidays coming up. On the way just as we were passing the fountain we ran into Liz. 3 in one day! She was waiting to meet Grace and they were going to see a French band with love called BB Brune at Mika’s university ball. I only know one song which feature the only words ‘dis moi!’. We arrived at the art school where I showed them my space and such like and then we went for a drink at a local café. We stopped off at the supermarket to pick up some food and wine and returned home to get changed. My dad thought it was stuffy and suggested I opened the window so I did so and a few minutes later my mum fluffed down on the day where the open window was. The next thing we knew she was gasping in excruciating pain and blood was poring from her head! My dad was shouting get some tissue he said later that his heart was beating so fast. Thank god her head stopped bleeding pretty soon and it wasn’t fatal! Mum always hurts herself on holiday whether it’s a jelly fish sting or a twisted ankle, there’s always drama.
When we’d run into Hannah and family earlier we’d arranged to out for meal with them. We met at the church near the art school and I decided to take them to the same restaurant we’d gone to a few nights before.
Had a brilliant night out in a pub called saxo. Live music and everyone got up and started dancing. My parents leading the way!
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
23rd March onwards
Sunday
I’m ashamed to say I did not leave the house. I was looking through my diary and only realised it was Easter half way through the day. There’s not really much publicity in the way of Easter eggs here…not that I should need that as a reminder. Anyway it snowed and I was freezing. I put two pairs of socks on and read my book. Aww Bridget Jones moment all by my self!
Monday
We thought the art school wouldn’t be open and so for some strange reason we decided to meet to go to the internet café at 8.30. I can’t sleep in any more. I’ve tried but I just lie there thinking get up and do something. Stop being Lazy! It’s made me more productive at least. So we turned up to the internet café put just as I suspected, it wasn’t open. We went to our trusty alternative Flunch. We are regulars now. When ever we profess our love for flunch people make fun of us as it’s really cheap and just full with old people. After lunch at flunch, Liz and I went back to Grace’s and she made us some hot chocolate in which she managed to use up a whole can of cream! I think we watched a bit of mtv. Oh also Grace painting a kind of manifesto over my back and chest and face, which took about 5 hours and then another 5 hours for her to take photos. It was a long evening. She then cooked us a meal. Riz et legumes!
Thursday
Well we’d been told it would be a good idea to arrange a tutorial with Philip Richard, who’s the painting lecturer here and apparently he’s really hard to get hold off. I’d heard he was in on Thursdays and you have to catch him early. So Liz and I arranged to meet at the fountain at 8.30 and try and chase him down. We turned up waited around where a few lecturers were standing and eventually I went up to one of them and said, ‘Ou est Philip Richard?’ to which he said ‘C’est moi’ and we arranged to meet that day at 11. We decided to go on a search for staples. My next painting’s pretty big and I needed to staple it to the wall. Philip Richard is actually Patricia’s husband. We’d been told by her that he speaks no English which is an absolute lie! He spoke brilliant English. The tutorial went really well. He was recommending Renaissance artists for me to look up as they are all interested in the theme of someone carelessly being watched at mundane activities like I am. After this, I stapled my canvas to the wall, put Primer on it, Liz did the same and we sat and watched paint dry. It didn’t dry that day so we went home.
That evening we’d arranged to go out to a Japanese restaurant with one of the guys from the other night called Quintin but we call him Mika because he has curly hair like the singer. He brought a few friends called Charlie and rhhh I can’t remember the other name. Anyway I found out Charlie spent a year in London last year and lived in Wood Green! Very close to where I live. We met them outside of O’kalloghans and incidentally decided to go in for a drink before the meal. The Grace and I ate the only thing we could on the menu, rice and avocado thing. After getting used to Grace’s amazing stir fry’s, this was quite boring. Some how during the night the waiter got it into his head that it was Grace’s birthday and we didn’t chose to correct him so he gave us free shots which were actually disgusting. There was a naked man that appeared at the bottom of the glass when the class was filled with liquid and disappeared when you drank though so that was cool.
Friday
Despite having a late night i wanted to get an early start on the finally dry canvas on my wall so I set my alarm for 7.30 and went in for about 9. I painted most of the day away. There’s starting to be loads of tourists here because of the Easter holidays and they all come in to look at the art school gounds. It’s strange the transformation from tourist to inhabitant. I mean I still think it’s beautiful here but I don’t look at in the same way I used to. The toursist, taking photos of every old looking building side of me went away after a few days and as I said I just wanted to fit in as a resident. Hmm also there was a parade through town and directly behind police cars and cars that collect rubbish wre directly behind. They’re so on the ball here. They go to great effort to keep Rouen the beautiful place that it is. I do have one complaint though there is so much dog crap every where. Amazingly I haven’t stepped in any yet.
I headed over to Liz’s at about 6. I was the last to arrive. Grace was already cooking away over the stove. She cooked meat for the boys too which was very nice of her. Hannah was chopping vegetables, Liz was in the living starring lovingly at the electric guitar that Mika had brought. He was amazing at the guitar and was playing old classic roch songs like Johnny be good. It was great. Charlie wasn’t musical at all so he just sat there all night I’m afraid. Yeah so grace served up her feast of a stir fry and rice this time adding cashew nuts and ginger to the mix. Unfortunatly and also quite hilariously Mika and Charlie could not stand the ginger and apologised that they couldn’t finished they’re meal. ‘In France we eat only meat!’
Later on Grace tried to teach me some salsa but fayed profusely. She kept saying ‘Look at your arms! They’re all floppy. Hold them firm!’ She spent a good 20 minutes trying to teach me and then gave up. I warned her I can’t dance. The night came to an end at about 10.30. We were all knackered. I sneakily asked if we could have a lift off of Mika.
Sunday
I’m ashamed to say I did not leave the house. I was looking through my diary and only realised it was Easter half way through the day. There’s not really much publicity in the way of Easter eggs here…not that I should need that as a reminder. Anyway it snowed and I was freezing. I put two pairs of socks on and read my book. Aww Bridget Jones moment all by my self!
Monday
We thought the art school wouldn’t be open and so for some strange reason we decided to meet to go to the internet café at 8.30. I can’t sleep in any more. I’ve tried but I just lie there thinking get up and do something. Stop being Lazy! It’s made me more productive at least. So we turned up to the internet café put just as I suspected, it wasn’t open. We went to our trusty alternative Flunch. We are regulars now. When ever we profess our love for flunch people make fun of us as it’s really cheap and just full with old people. After lunch at flunch, Liz and I went back to Grace’s and she made us some hot chocolate in which she managed to use up a whole can of cream! I think we watched a bit of mtv. Oh also Grace painting a kind of manifesto over my back and chest and face, which took about 5 hours and then another 5 hours for her to take photos. It was a long evening. She then cooked us a meal. Riz et legumes!
Tuesday
Presentations! Ahhh the day had finally come. Well Grace was first and it went wondrously well. She didn’t look at her bit of paper once and was engaging with everyone the whole time. Liz was next and she was reading off the paper and kept looking up and seemed astonished that people knew what she was talking about. Then came moi….i starred down at my paper for the majority of it, recited my speech and tried to get it over as soon as possible. It went well though. People recommended Artists and asked questions. Hannah went next and she too read off a prepared speech. It went well.
Presentations! Ahhh the day had finally come. Well Grace was first and it went wondrously well. She didn’t look at her bit of paper once and was engaging with everyone the whole time. Liz was next and she was reading off the paper and kept looking up and seemed astonished that people knew what she was talking about. Then came moi….i starred down at my paper for the majority of it, recited my speech and tried to get it over as soon as possible. It went well though. People recommended Artists and asked questions. Hannah went next and she too read off a prepared speech. It went well.
Apres I think we all just went home. I can’t remember. That evening I went to bed at a ridiculously early time. 9.30! I woke up at 1.00 and thought it was morning. I also had a really bad dream where these toyu jelly babies came to life and started undoing the strings of my guitar. I don’t know what that means. I think in the dream they were warning me that the guitar was cursed. Scary stuff!
Wednesay
I finished off my painting. Here it is.
Wednesay
I finished off my painting. Here it is.
Thursday
Well we’d been told it would be a good idea to arrange a tutorial with Philip Richard, who’s the painting lecturer here and apparently he’s really hard to get hold off. I’d heard he was in on Thursdays and you have to catch him early. So Liz and I arranged to meet at the fountain at 8.30 and try and chase him down. We turned up waited around where a few lecturers were standing and eventually I went up to one of them and said, ‘Ou est Philip Richard?’ to which he said ‘C’est moi’ and we arranged to meet that day at 11. We decided to go on a search for staples. My next painting’s pretty big and I needed to staple it to the wall. Philip Richard is actually Patricia’s husband. We’d been told by her that he speaks no English which is an absolute lie! He spoke brilliant English. The tutorial went really well. He was recommending Renaissance artists for me to look up as they are all interested in the theme of someone carelessly being watched at mundane activities like I am. After this, I stapled my canvas to the wall, put Primer on it, Liz did the same and we sat and watched paint dry. It didn’t dry that day so we went home.
That evening we’d arranged to go out to a Japanese restaurant with one of the guys from the other night called Quintin but we call him Mika because he has curly hair like the singer. He brought a few friends called Charlie and rhhh I can’t remember the other name. Anyway I found out Charlie spent a year in London last year and lived in Wood Green! Very close to where I live. We met them outside of O’kalloghans and incidentally decided to go in for a drink before the meal. The Grace and I ate the only thing we could on the menu, rice and avocado thing. After getting used to Grace’s amazing stir fry’s, this was quite boring. Some how during the night the waiter got it into his head that it was Grace’s birthday and we didn’t chose to correct him so he gave us free shots which were actually disgusting. There was a naked man that appeared at the bottom of the glass when the class was filled with liquid and disappeared when you drank though so that was cool.
After the meal we went back to O’kalloghans for a few more drinks. Good fun. We then went on to Emporiam Galloriam which wasn’t so fun. It’s too dark in there. We decided to call it a night. It was nice to see Mika again as we hate the idea that our friends here are disposable. After a few discussions about music we discovered that Mika plays the Ukulele and the guitar and he some how managed to arrange that we all have a music session at Liz’s the next night. Well we’re always keen to show off our wagon wheel rendition so we obliged. Liz stayed with me that night as it was too late or early to walk home.
Friday
Despite having a late night i wanted to get an early start on the finally dry canvas on my wall so I set my alarm for 7.30 and went in for about 9. I painted most of the day away. There’s starting to be loads of tourists here because of the Easter holidays and they all come in to look at the art school gounds. It’s strange the transformation from tourist to inhabitant. I mean I still think it’s beautiful here but I don’t look at in the same way I used to. The toursist, taking photos of every old looking building side of me went away after a few days and as I said I just wanted to fit in as a resident. Hmm also there was a parade through town and directly behind police cars and cars that collect rubbish wre directly behind. They’re so on the ball here. They go to great effort to keep Rouen the beautiful place that it is. I do have one complaint though there is so much dog crap every where. Amazingly I haven’t stepped in any yet.
I headed over to Liz’s at about 6. I was the last to arrive. Grace was already cooking away over the stove. She cooked meat for the boys too which was very nice of her. Hannah was chopping vegetables, Liz was in the living starring lovingly at the electric guitar that Mika had brought. He was amazing at the guitar and was playing old classic roch songs like Johnny be good. It was great. Charlie wasn’t musical at all so he just sat there all night I’m afraid. Yeah so grace served up her feast of a stir fry and rice this time adding cashew nuts and ginger to the mix. Unfortunatly and also quite hilariously Mika and Charlie could not stand the ginger and apologised that they couldn’t finished they’re meal. ‘In France we eat only meat!’
Later on Grace tried to teach me some salsa but fayed profusely. She kept saying ‘Look at your arms! They’re all floppy. Hold them firm!’ She spent a good 20 minutes trying to teach me and then gave up. I warned her I can’t dance. The night came to an end at about 10.30. We were all knackered. I sneakily asked if we could have a lift off of Mika.
Saturday
Strangely every single Saturday without fail, It’s always sunny. So it always puts me in a good mood for the weekend. I woke up pretty early and cleaned my apartment form top to bottom and then met Liz and Hannah in the laundrette…..to do laundry. I finished atonement. We then went on to Café cheri, which was absolutely packed with students. This may be the reason why my lap top wasn’t connecting but I just wanted to throw it across the room.
Hannah invited us over to hers for a meal and a film. She made us delicious quiche thing and salad. We watched little miss sunshine which I love.
Strangely every single Saturday without fail, It’s always sunny. So it always puts me in a good mood for the weekend. I woke up pretty early and cleaned my apartment form top to bottom and then met Liz and Hannah in the laundrette…..to do laundry. I finished atonement. We then went on to Café cheri, which was absolutely packed with students. This may be the reason why my lap top wasn’t connecting but I just wanted to throw it across the room.
Hannah invited us over to hers for a meal and a film. She made us delicious quiche thing and salad. We watched little miss sunshine which I love.
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